This dream is reality, thanks to OnLive, an enterprising startup who created an iPad app that leverages remote virtualization to deliver the missing functionality over high-speed gigabit internet connections. OnLive's free service launched in January, offering users free Office access.

In February it added the "Desktop Plus" service. Priced at $4.99/month, the upgrade ditched ads and eliminated annoying waits to get access to the remote Windows 7 desktop. And it added Adobe PDF reading and Flash compatibility, plus 2 GB of storage.

But OnLive's remote Windows 7 virtualization solution may be in jeopardy. In a blog posted on March 8 Microsoft worlwide licensing VP, Joe Matz, writes:

Microsoft partners who host under the Services Provider License Agreement ("SPLA") may bring some desktop-like functionality as a service by using Windows Server and Remote Desktop Services. Under this solution, the partner is free to offer this service to any customer they choose, whether or not they have a direct licensing agreement with Microsoft. However, it is important to note that SPLA does not support delivery of Windows 7 as a hosted client or provide the ability to access Office as a service through Windows 7. Office may only be provided as a service if it is hosted on Windows Server and Remote Desktop Services.

He then specifically addresses the elephant in the room -- OnLive's Desktop app. Writes Mr. Matz:

Some inquiries about these scenarios have been raised as a result of recent media coverage related to OnLive’s Desktop and Desktop Plus services. Additionally, the analyst firm Gartner raised questions regarding the compliance of these services last week. We are actively engaged with OnLive with the hope of bringing them into a properly licensed scenario, and we are committed to seeing this issue is resolved.

That means that while the service may survive, the free version is almost certainly dead, except perhaps on a trial-driven basis. And likely any paid version will be much more expensive than it currently is.

There have been many rumors that Microsoft is preparing its own direct port of Office to the iPad and Android. However, Apple's iPad 3 launch came and went without any announcement from Microsoft. Microsoft did recently launch a OneNote app for Android and iOS. However, it is uncertain whether or not the rumored iOS Office Suite will come to be, given that it could remove one of the biggest selling points of Microsoft's coming Windows 8 tablets.

By now nobody is surprized to read Jason Mick twisting reality when it comes to reporting on anything Microsoft. This analyst wanna-be, in this instance, decided to omit the fact that Windows 7 and Office Suite are not free. Getting used to Android, eh?

Someone has to pay for using it. If the provider of the virtualized service, Onlive, wants to give their service for free to end-users, this is their prerogative. Whatever Onlive's busines model might be (e.g., paid subscription, ads), they must fairly compensate Microsoft for use of their software. Is this not fair? Of course, it is.

But Jason Mick wants to influence public opinion by publishing sensational and dramatic titles such as "Microsoft Moves to Kill Free Something." Those killers of freedoms... are plotting against the free world of Android. Broo-haha.

And why Jason Mick failed to mention that Microsoft has its own Office 365 offering in the cloud? Simple. Because Onlive service then sounds unique and ever so more important. Android fans are weeping already...

Fact is that Microsoft is working with Onlive to sign SPLA, an established way to license software for service providers. It appears that another freeloading outfit was caught red handed and now it's time to cough up payments, the responsibility Jason Mick would rather pretend does not exist. He writes: "Microsoft tries to bring them into the licensing fold," and "it sounds like OnLive will need to buy a whole license per user to avoid litigation." Yeah, voilating IP rights and freeriding is better according to Jason Mick.

Office is so yesterday. It's perfectly possible to do anything and to interact, share and edit documents and collaborate with with anyone (including those stuck using Office) without ever using any part of the Office suite. It just seems such an old fashioned and anachronistic piece of software, and considering it as some sort of essential feature of using a computing device seems silly. A bit like how at the dawn of the PC era it used to be considered essential that personal computers were equipped with terminal emulation software. The rise of the PC left all that behind and the rise of the tablet (iPad) will leave much of the dross of the PC era behind. Few will miss much of it.

Android has utterly failed to get any purchase in the tablet market and I can't see Microsoft catching Apple with the confusing mess that is Windows 8 and so the iPad will be like the iPod, dominating the market for years to come.

quote: Spouting the same anti MS and Android biased, unsubstantiated drivel you always do, not backing up any opinion with fact. Then you sum with the great link to a totally unbiased Mac site! /sarcasm off.

Who are you to judge any method of discourse? Sometimes name calling is just stating the obvious.

I usually do type my comments in Word because the auto-correct and dictionary are far better and suited exactly to how I like to type. Yes, I have Chrome which tells me a word is spelled wrong (although right now I'm typing on IE10 and it works MUCH better than Chrome's spell checking) but I find Word much easier to use. 'Cause, you know, it was designed to do just that.